Sony and Panasonic unveil 300 GB Archival Discs for long-term storage

Sony and Panasonic have today jointly announced a new type of optical disc, which they're dubbing the Archival Disc. As the name of the media would suggest, it's aimed at long-term data storage, both through large capacities and durability.
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I don't see this technology being used in homes, HDD are dirt cheap now so unless the writer/reader drive and discs are cheap like... blu ray cheap, even then it's expensive, I never bought a blu-ray writer to make backups because (at least here in Chile) the drive is as expensive as a terabyte drive, to get a tera out of blu-rays is as expensive as another tera hdd, and for as little as another 10 blu discs (250gb) you can get the 2 tb hdd (Not considering the amount of time you would take to make the backups).

Unless you share a lot of files, this makes more sense (and probably a lot cheaper) than cloud storage to me. Personally I don't share files and like to store my own personal data so I could go for something like this.

It will never get mainstream.
Blu-ray was officially released in June 2006. I have yet to see it in local stores (aside from blank media, ps3, home entertainment). 5.25" Blu-ray player/dvd combo writer and blu-ray re-writer are a no show and not popular add-ons in so far as my few friends are concerned.

and now this "archival disc"...
Sony/Panasonic better rename it to indigo-ray (violet/red/orange/yellow-ray) or to the other side of the color spectrum, green-ray (yellow/orange/red/violet-ray)
(or the intentional misspelling indigu-ray, violeti-ray, redi-ray, orangi-ray, yellu-ray, greeni-ray)

It's not about 'cheap' storage but long term storage. It won't go 'mainstream' because it is a niche market for those who care about archival grade digital storage. Have you ever tried reading a home-burned CD you made from over ten years ago? I have... some of them (especially the cheaper discs) have data read issues and some are simply no longer readable. It's a good thing the information I stored on them is either no longer important or duplicated elsewhere.

The article fails to mention how long these discs are intended to last. It is a genuinely growing concern as more and more information is stored digitally which, like it or not, is still more volatile than the printed word.

It will never get mainstream.
Blu-ray was officially released in June 2006. I have yet to see it in local stores (aside from blank media, ps3, home entertainment). 5.25" Blu-ray player/dvd combo writer and blu-ray re-writer are a no show and not popular add-ons in so far as my few friends are concerned.

and now this "archival disc"...
Sony/Panasonic better rename it to indigo-ray (violet/red/orange/yellow-ray) or to the other side of the color spectrum, green-ray (yellow/orange/red/violet-ray)
(or the intentional misspelling indigu-ray, violeti-ray, redi-ray, orangi-ray, yellu-ray, greeni-ray)

Did everyone not read the entire article? "Archival Discs aren't meant to replace Blu-rays, but they will be promoted in the professional space as an "effective solution for protecting valuable data into the future"."

Their target market is businesses, not the average consumer. Most companies are still using tapes to back up their information, which are bulky and hold less data in comparison. The question is if these discs can survive longer than the tapes.

Are you shitting me? I use mine regularly to watch DVD/Blu-ray's and burn my own CD mix's and DVD's for 'regular non-tech' folk to be able to watch/listen to something I have on my computer. Not having it? unimaginable.

Me too Duke. I also make dvd's of the watercolor demos at my wife's club. So my question, which didn't get answered is, will these discs burn on a regular Blu-Ray burner? Would be the perfect medium for a years worth of demos.

Me too Duke. I also make dvd's of the watercolor demos at my wife's club. So my question, which didn't get answered is, will these discs burn on a regular Blu-Ray burner? Would be the perfect medium for a years worth of demos.

Click to expand...

Since this is not tech out there and all we can do is speculate over this, I can assume and sort of asure you that they won't be able to be burnt on normal blu-rays. First reason why I don't think it could, not all blu-ray wr are able to write on the high density "new" blu-rays disks out there, some are limited to normal double layers (50gb). Second, they will use technology that is not presently available. Third, if your logic could apply to some extent, cdwr could've been able to write dvds. Fourth, the text says this are not meant to replace blu-ray, meaning they will "compete" in some way with them.

I never bought a blu-ray writer to make backups because (at least here in Chile) the drive is as expensive as a terabyte drive, to get a tera out of blu-rays is as expensive as another tera hdd.

Click to expand...

If you were talking about the 3TB drive instead, that would be a cheaper route and most definitely less labor with faster read write speeds.

$120(120 BD x25) for 3TB is higher cost than a 3TB drive, which doesn't include the initial cost of the BD writer.

The most relevant question is whether a HDD will last, year after year as an archival solution. I use BD as an archival solution to store data, in the event I have an HDD go bad. Other than archival purposes, I use HDD for storage. We have to remember this is archival not storage, there is a difference.